"Cue To Cue: A Conversation about Theatre in the Twin Cities" is featuring the Fringe

Episodes are being broadcast both on TPT-17, St. Paul's public TV station (which reaches most of the full Twin Cities broadcast area) as well as the more localized SPNN, St. Paul Neighborhood Network, cable access Channel 19 in St. Paul.

Nearly two dozen shows with a dance label this year (including amusing entries like Jaws: The Musical - the mind boggles, but in a good way)

Where to begin? How about one of the most popular dance companies from last year's Fringe, back again to try new and challenging work?

They want to share their love of Middle Eastern dance by fusing it with a wide variety of other styles of dance, music and performance - reaching out to audiences (like me) who are not the traditional belly dancing target demographic.

Having seen a sample of their work from last year's original On The Beaded Fringe when they brought it into the TV studio for "Cue To Cue" last month, they completely won me over. There's a sense of fun and playfulness, both in the sense of comedy, and in the sense of a full and joyous embracing of life itself, that's quite infectious. And on top of all this, they are very accomplished dancers - at least to this novice's eye. They also understand the entertainment value of spectacle with colorful costumes and simple but effective sets and props.

I admitted my ignorance of dance before in last year's blog. Though I'm no closer to being an educated connoisseur of the art of movement, among the shows I most enjoyed in last year's Fringe was Noah Bremer's dance/performance piece Exposure. So I thought it was high time a dance troupe was in my must-see list.

And apparently "People who scheduled this also scheduled" such hilariously unrelated shows as: Assassins, Look Ma No Pants, Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat, Whoppers, and Improv A Go Go: Deathmatch. And I have to admit that on nearly all counts, one of those people was probably me. (Though I guess Go-Go comes closer than most, at least semantically).

For a look a the rest of my evolving New Top Ten (If You Held A Gun To My Head and I could only see ten fringe shows, what would they be and why), click below:

Sorry for the extended incommunicado period, but it was a computer crash beyond my control. My "new" supposedly lovely laptop crashed for the third (and final) time in less than ten months. And after major replacements of the logic/motherboard and the entire hard drive (with a complete loss of all data - thank heaven for backups) the first two times, the maker agreed it was a lemon and said they'd send me another. There was a lot of hold time on the phone in there, but the result was good.

However, I won't have said computer until a week or so from now. Luckily, my old, but still very sturdy, laptop - though slow - is at least fully functional and internet capable. So the blogs are back.

First up, time to post the thing I was trying to complete when the sad crash occurred... (no reflection on, or ill will toward the company in question - it certainly wasn't their fault :)

Thursday, July 29, 2004

As day jobs go, my day job's OK. It's very busy right now so I can't sneak time to blog on duty.

I'd do some at lunch but my day job is in St. Paul.

Whereas where I live, in Minneapolis, wi-fi would not be a problem to find, sadly, it's not so easy in St. Paul.

It *is* the state capitol, right?

You can't swing a dead cat without running into a bank, a food court, a brokerage firm, a marginally-stocked convenience store, or a coffee shop in St. Paul.

But if you work in downtown, and want, oh, say, a book, or a CD, or office supplies, or wi-fi? Forget it. Not within walking distance.

Minneapolis? Not a problem.

If anyone has suggestions for wi-fi in downtown St. Paul that don't require me getting in a car and driving halfway to Minneapolis, thus wasting the lunch hour during which I was trying to eat and blog just getting to a place where I *can* blog, I'm all ears.

More when I get home from our last pre-tech rehearsal of Dandelion Snow tonight.

Here's another sci-fi tale that's grown and evolved over the last five years and now comes to the Fringe.

Peter Jensen, the creator of the piece and Artistic Director of Infinity Star Productions, is originally from Minneapolis, but Vision's Tale was born during his time out in Santa Cruz. He recently moved back to his home town and now his friends from California, members of the multicultural troupe Rainbow Theatre who helped mount the first production, are traveling to the Midwest to help him present this new, Fringe version of the tale. (A lot of miles on this one, and all to the good. Still new theater, but with a seasoned edge to it.)

The seeds of the piece came from "The Tragic Events of 6/66: A Science Fiction Tale of War, Boundaries, and Beliefs... a series of monologues and dialogues that looked at the events that were to take place on June 6, 2066 (6/66). The piece was in part a parody on the U.S. government's obsession with war and criminalizing the "Other," (Communists, Terrorists, and in the future history..., Subvervises.)"

It has grown into the story you see summarized on the Fringe site here. Peter provided a little more detail as follows...

"What I want to do with Vision's Tale is to peer into a possible apocapyptic future of agriculture in the U.S. in order to incite transformative action in the present... Vision's Tale is narrated by Vision, who is telling the story of his/her birth on Vision's 100th birthday... about the interwoven and interconnected strands of the Curse of the Machine, Cycles of Social Haunting, and Birth of Vision. Each of the main characters in the play (Saviorpuppet, the Kapital Machine, Kapitalist Krusader, Lazarus, Poetpriestess, and Dream) have a vested interest in the birth of Vision. Dream is a young Mayan woman who was captured and brought to work on a futuristic biodome plantation in California. At the opening of the play, she is nine months pregant with the child, Vision. As the story develops, each one of the characters is confronted by societal ghosts from their past. Each has do decide what to do when confronted by social haunting, including transforming relationships through truth and compassion. The context for the story shows the oppressive and liberating networks involved in the past, present, and future of the agricultural economy in the U.S. (United Global Empire)."

Kapital Machine is a funky-looking interactive soundtrack generator, live on stage, which I find intriguing. And I'm amused by any character with a name like Saviorpuppet.

This feels like the kind of thinking person's sci-fi romp - highly entertaining, but still tweaking your brain both during and after you've seen it - that the happy folks at our local Bedlam Theatre perfected in their delightfully low-tech, off-kilter adaptation of "Terminus." And since I returned to "Terminus" several times during its run to revel in its quirky sensibility of the limitless possibility of theater, I'm happy to line up at the potential for more of the same from a Fringe show.

You can learn more about Vision's Tale, Kaptial Machine and see some photos by going to www.mindsore.com and click on "Vision's Tale" in the menu at the bottom.

While You're At It - other shows that, if you like any of the other top ten/sure thing shows I mentioned, should also be of interest to you:

I don't know why. I should probably consider them junk mail, but I just like the idea of all these theater companies and plays and actors playwrights and such finding their way to my mailbox for me to peruse.

So many options. And in the case of the Fringe, just way, way too many to choose from.

But just to know theater is alive and kicking (and in many case, kicking ass) is just a heck of a fun.

The other day it was the official Fringe Festival card (one card to signify so many)

I've been looking at some of the art on the website. I'm looking forward to seeing some of it up close at last.

Today, more Fringers...

Women! Live On Stage!from Theatre Unbound
Minneapolis Theatre Garage
"A young actress auditions for a show about the history of women in theatre. She definitely gets more than she bargained for"
(as will we, I have no doubt)
I love the Unbounders, and they're on my list of shows to see, year round, but definitely at Fringe as well. More on them shortly.
Last year, they did The Love Talker, which caused me to both drool and scratch my befuddled head at the same time - which ain't easy.

Sherlock Holmes - Murder at the Abbey Grangefrom Hardcover Theater
also at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage
adapted by a fellow playwright friend Mark Steven Jensen
I like me some Sherlock Holmes, ever since I was a kid. That's always a draw.

Cuckooland Revisitedfrom Interact Theatre
at Interact Theatre
with our own beloved Kevin Kling in the cast
Gods, Goddesses, Evil Doers, a Dimwitted World Leader and a cast of 30!
A musical political satire inspired by Aristophanes' "The Birds"
(wow, the Greeks really did do everything first)
I don't know which of all those things makes me love this show most. It's impossible to decide. I desperately needed a giggle or two, and the card gave me one. Imagine what seeing the actual show could do for my disposition?

People who scheduled this show also scheduled:
Dressing Room
The Great Masturbators
The Valets
ASSASSINS by Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman
Death Penalty Puppetry

Gay love story to a play entitled The Great Masturbators. Hilarious. I suppose one could get all overly sensitive about it. "Oh right, gay people and presidential assassins! Gay people and masturbation! Gay people and a dressing room - are you implying something?! Gay people putting puppets to death!" But hey, it's not a homophobic computer, it's based on other people's schedules. (Heck, I'm one of the people who has The Great Masturbators and Patrick & James on my draft schedule. And Assassins, and Valets, and the puppets).

It's a great way to get people to click over to plays they might not otherwise have peeked at. Another great Fringe site way to mix different audiences and different shows together. And the really cool thing is it'll keep changing as more people use the site to build their schedules.

So check out those lists. They're a heck of a lot of fun. And you might get a good show out of it you weren't expecting.

Sometimes just the idea for a show is so wild and inventive and creepy, it makes me do a doubletake. It's something I haven't seen before, that nonetheless compells me. That's a sure sign I should see it. The Judas Cradle had that effect on me.

Back when I got early info on the preliminary slate of Fringe shows, the title caught my eye. Then I read this simple description...

"...play about three dangerous criminals stranded on another planet who are left in charge of the genetic material of an entire future colony."

When I inquired after the show with its creator Damian Sheridan, I was further intrigued...

"I do a lot of spoken word around town and I have one piece called 'Traveller' about how people 'cheat' at time travel by having themselves cryogenically frozen and buried in the foundations of buildings as human time capsules. One of the throw-away lines from this piece refers to private companies sending out colonies of frozen fetuses watched over by skeleton crews of dangerous criminals who society could find no place for and so banished into the space program to bring 'civilization and Starbucks' to the farthest corners of the galaxy. One day while I was performing this aloud, I realized there was a show in there somewhere. That show is The Judas Cradle."

Now, I'm not a rabid sci-fi fan. Just an occasional visitor to other futures and planets - some Bradbury here, some Star Trek of various generations there - but I know what I like. The human and moral questions pulsating just below the surface of really good science fiction is the stuff of great entertainment for me. Even though it's asking the big questions, it's still a rollicking good adventure story.

(Let the irrate comments begin if you must, but please read to the end first, you might like this post after all)

So, what I'm about to say perplexes the heck out of me, but...

There is *so* much good musical theatre potential in this year's Fringe.

Maybe I just woke up and smelled the treble clef, but I don't think so.

Here are some of the titles that are overcoming my natural bias and making me actually want to see a musical this year...

Nautilus Music-Theater is doing triple duty this year, for starters. Since I greatly admire Nautilus and their mission to bring new and original forms of musical theater to the Twin Cities, and their program developing the talents of the composers and lyricists of the future, anything they do automatically climbs to the top of my list. Any or all of these are worth your time...

A Pulitzer prize-winning song cycle, based on the diaries of the author who Michael Cunningham's gorgeous (also Pulitzer prize-winning) novel and Nicole Kidman's Oscar-winning putty nose made trendy again, by a local composer, sung by one of Nautilus' many supremely talented singer-collaborators.

This is an intriguing concept. A two-person musical in which each act can be done separately and taken on its own terms. Audiences that manage to get in to see both will be treated to an extra set of resonances between the two, regardless of the order you see them in. Act One - John and Jen, a brother and sister, come of age in the 60's, with John going off to fight in Vietnam. Act Two - Jen is a single mother raising her son John, named for her late brother. Again, two more amazing voices from the seemingly inexhaustable Nautilus stable of stellar local singing talent.

What's a Fringe during an election year without a Stephen Sondheim musical about presidential assassins - both successful and unsuccessful? (Thankfully, we don't have to find out.) I saw a delightfully twisted production of this over ten years ago at the Great American History Theatre and I'm long overdue for a return visit to this clever and thought-provoking funhouse ride of a musical.

Though we've all been burned by too many Jim Carey/Mike Meyers vehicles that were more bloated commercials than movies, I'm still curious about this one. And, unlike Assassins, this is one you can take the kiddies to.

Folks, if I'm genuinely interested in going to musicals this year (and I am), we're down the rabbit hole.

If Mama Cass and Karen Carpenter had only shared that sandwich, they'd both still be alive today.

There, I got it out of my system. (You can blame my old friend Joe for that joke. Though we don't see each other much anymore, I still remember his jokes that made me gasp)

Anyway, the Carpenters are a guilty pleasure I to which I gladly cop. Perky or depressed, they always fit my mood (and, as with Ben Folds, "Lord, the voice on that poor woman." Just astonishing.)

Tequila snuck up on me but they also get my nod because they got me through six hours in the emergency room recently. Every time I saw the title, I remembered that goofy tune (which is now stuck in your head, sorry). That tune is also associated in my head both with Pee Wee Herman dancing atop a table in a motorcycle bar, and with Bert Parks singing the refrain in that bizarre lizard movie "The Freshman" starring the eternally boyish Matthew Broderick and the late Marlon Brando (move over, Mama Cass). It all made me smile right when I needed it most, so I'm glad I'd scribbled the title in the notes I'd brought with me that day.

But of course their show has nothing to do with any of that. It's from local Latino company Teatro del Pueblo (one of a collection of artists of color this year saving us from a lily white Fringe). Laughter, love, lust, three scorned women and a homosexual bartender (Patrick's Cabaret regular Paulino Brener), guitar, trumpet, song, dance and illusion. I'm getting a Gabriel Garcia Marquez vibe (though it was written by Latina playwright Silvia Pontaza) and all of that is more than enough to sell me.

While You're At It - other shows that, if you like any of the other top ten/sure thing shows I mentioned, should also be of interest to you:

We all have a soundtrack to our lives. It evolves as we do. If we're lucky, we have musically savvy friends who periodically broaden our musical horizons with new suggestions and a gift of a CD or two. One such friend for me is K Snodgrass. It was she who introduced me to Ben Folds Five with their disk "Whatever And Ever Amen" five years ago or so now. To this day, I repeatedly listen to (and share with others) tracks from that CD - "Smoke," "Brick," "Evaporated," "Song for the Dumped," "One Angry Dwarf..." and, well, nearly every other dang track on that thing. Quirky, clever, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, haunting and pulse-pounding (and that *voice* of Ben's). I bought the other Ben Folds Five CDs as well, and follow Mr. Folds now on his solo career. With the good ones, you feel like the singer/songwriter crawled in your head and your heart and dragged out the best and worst of it and then set it to music, to somehow make it all a little better. Ben Folds does that for me.

So it was with much delight I discovered among the 175 plus shows this year that a show would be up to its eyeballs in Ben Folds' music. I got in touch with Brandon York of Brown Bee Productions and here's a little of what he shared with me...

"This show is an idea that has been molded over a number of years...By the time my senior year in high school had approached, I decided to disect the fourth and final Ben Folds Five album, "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner," and came up with a storyline within the music...[W]hile attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts [in New York], I wrote three more scripts...From original ideas I held within [these] previous scripts...and from new ideas, we've constructed a series of films all inspired by Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five music. While showing the film above us, we'll set up a live/staged cabaret style underscoring which, I hope, will captivate an audience on a whole different level.

The show has a simple plot. It's a simple journey through a simple life - the ups and downs and curveballs life throws your way, brought to you through the music of Ben Folds.

Along with [Tony Radecki, John Lynn and myself], we''ve collaborated with a few other top musicians and film buffs to help us in our journey."

If I weren't already such a big Ben Folds fan myself, Brandon's enthusiasm would still be infectious enough to take me along for the ride. Because I am a fan, and want to share good music in much the same way Brandon and my friend K do, I urge you to give the show a slot on your schedule. It's not in my top ten this year for nothing.

For a look a the rest of my evolving New Top Ten (If You Held A Gun To My Head and I could only see ten fringe shows, what would they be and why), click below:

Next Sunday, the third of four episodes of "Cue To Cue" spotlighting this year's first which have been picked up for rebroadcast by TPT-17 will be shown. TPT-17 is St. Paul's public TV station, serving the greater Twin Cities area. This week's upcoming broadcast is:

Sunday, August 1st - 10:00 pmEpisode 107
- Fast Fringe - the Festival's two part short play showcase
- Janelle Ranek and her one woman show "Scrawl: 2nd Draft Still Not Approved"

In the meantime, our spotlight on this year's Minnesota Fringe Festival continues as all six episodes are now in heavy rotation on SPNN, the St. Paul Neighborhood Network, Channel 19, for the weeks leading up to the opening of the Fringe. The guest rosters for the episodes include performances from and conversations with:

"Cue To Cue" was launched last year with a six episode series spotlighting the wide variety of acts in the 2003 Minnesota Fringe Festival (speaking with representatives of 15 Head, Ministry of Cultural Warfare, Theatre Unbound, Hunter Marionettes, Theatre Gallery, VISTA Productions, Kabobenco, and individual artists Kevin Kling, Kirsten Frantzich, Josette Antomarchi and Tom Cassidy, as well as profiles of the Spoken Word Fringe and Visible Fringe).

Scroll down the listing at the bottom of the page to Fresh Fruit (the program titles are in alphabetical order)

If you click on "Most Recent Show," you'll download last night's Fresh Fruit, which, among other things, included me.

If you click on "Previous Show," you'll get still more Fringe because last week Fresh Fruit spotlighted some of the queer content in the Fringe - including Karyn and Sharyn, Tequila, and Dandelion Snow.

(Search warning - if you go looking on the Fringe site, though Tequila has the character of a gay bartender in it, it isn't currently tagged in the GLBT content category. It is, however, in the Musical Theater category which, as we all know, can also be code of GLBT Content :)

They only keep the last two weeks of programming on the site at any given time, so you've got til next Thursday to download the queer Fringe show and yet another week beyond that (in the "previous show" category) to still download lil' old me.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

I'll admit it. I own more Backstreet Boys CD's than a thirtysomething man - gay or straight - probably should. And in my weaker moments, I think Justin Timberlake is kinda cute. No one would mistake that brand of pop as groundbreaking or original, but, hey, it's not meant to be. If I'm still mystified by house music, techno, showtunes and Barbara Streisand, boybands are where I yield to my gay gene and my hormones.

This fake group is, in the words of their head honcho Ryan North, "talented enough to maybe be real, and just bad enough to confuse people." And while I'll admit that a parody of boy bands almost seems redundant (they are all, on some level, self-parody anyway), U Betcha has had a loyal (nay, rabid) following since 2001 for a reason. This spoof, spawned at the Bryant Lake Bowl and taken on the road in several directions, is just plain fun, and funny. You don't inspire an extended sold out run, remounts, and audience members making their own T-shirts and tattoos (among other paraphenalia) just by virtue of being cute and being able to carry a tune. Not if you're a fake band. You've gotta be bringing some actual entertainment value to the table. Think of it as the theatrical equivalent of chocolate - sure it's not exactly nutritious, but you know you want some.

And though I've managed to resist their pull up to now, just barely, it's the Fringe. And exchanging email with Ryan about the show, I sense that they have their hearts and sense of irony in the right place, and tongues all firmly in cheek. And they've added Greta Grosch to the mix as an entertainment tabloid TV hostess putting the group through the fame-whore ringer. In my opinion, the inclusion of Greta alone, in any show, is reason enough to go. I know I'm gonna laugh my butt off.

So, what the hell, stop resisting. Give in and go see a very different group of boys in the band.

A more home-grown mythological entry, coming to us from Rochester, based on the Eddas, a collection of Icelandic poetry.

I'm a junky for myths and ancient tales told by modern theatrical artists - so that's my own personal bias. If it's not your cup of tea, so be it. However, how can you not be curious about a show that describes itself as...

"...the Ring Cycle, performed by the Marx Brothers. On acid"?

Plus, I love the enthusiasm of these folks. Phillip Andrew Bennett Low, the writer/adapter, told me this about the show when I went snooping around a few months back...

"A 'senna' is a kind of combat that takes the form of ritualized insults, usually very crude. Loki is the god of profanity, blasphemy, and mischief, who figures as a central character in many of the stories. Hence, "Lokasenna" -- the senna of Loki.

...This collection of songs and routines takes more the form of a comedy revue...[It] retells several Scandinavian myths, including the cutting of Sif's hair, Thor's journey to Utgard, and the theft of Thor's hammer. The twist is that the stories are filtered through the twin perspectives of Loki and his daughter Hel, the goddess of the underworld; thus, the exploits of the gods take the form of a kind of slapstick comedy.

I hope this doesn't sound too academic, because the show is first and foremost designed to be entertaining. One of the challenges of this project has been creating jokes that work on multiple levels: i.e., they're funny if you know the stories, but Joe off the street can still laugh even if he doesn't get the reference. In many cases, we're telling jokes that are nearly a thousand years old, and that's thrilling."

They're also right next door to my own show, Dandelion Snow, so it's more like dropping by to chat with the neighbors about how the Fringe is going. Looking forward to the acid trip.

While You're At It - other shows that, if you like any of the other top ten/sure thing shows I mentioned, should also be of interest to you:

And while, yes, it's the same source material, it's not the Mary Zimmerman extravaganza that had New York buzzing a few years back.

Instead, and delightfully so, this looks to be one of the best one person show imports from out of town this year.

Much along the lines of last year's One Man Hamlet (also in the same space), this production allows one actor with a lot of chops and bare minimum of props to delve into yet another classic text.

The mythological tale Ovid told may be over 2000 years old, but much of it will be recognizable for a variety of reasons, among them that a great many writers we revere today, Shakespeare among them, were influenced by these tales.

Reimagined and performed by Todd Conner, this takes storytelling back to the basics, breathing life into tales that are far from musty, despite their age.

I love that high wire act of a single person going out on stage and performing multiple roles all on their own with no backup. It's one of the adrenalin rushes you get in theater and nowhere else.

Talking perhaps about being a gay writer addressing a mix of both gay and straight characters in my work, and why it never ceases to perplex me that that's such a big deal to some people (on both sides of the fence).

I mentioned, among my duties as the Fringe's bitch, that I do some TV hosting. Here's the low down on that...

CUE TO CUE - a TV show covering theatre in Minnesota

Our spotlight on this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival continues as all six episodes are now in heavy rotation on SPNN, the St. Paul Neighborhood Network, Channel 19, for the weeks leading up to the opening of the Fringe. The guest rosters for the episodes include performances from and conversations with:

TPT also broadcast Episode 105 on July 4th, and Episode 106 on July 11th, so they like us, they really like us.

"Cue To Cue" was launched last year with a six episode series spotlighting the wide variety of acts in the 2003 Minnesota Fringe Festival (speaking with representatives of 15 Head, Ministry of Cultural Warfare, Theatre Unbound, Hunter Marionettes, Theatre Gallery, VISTA Productions, Kabobenco, and individual artists Kevin Kling, Kirsten Frantzich, Josette Antomarchi and Tom Cassidy, as well as profiles of the Spoken Word Fringe and Visible Fringe).

If this were a prison movie, and the Fringe and I were cellmates, I'd be the Fringe's bitch.

You know it's bad when you really, really want to blog, because you're so excited about all the cool shows you want to spread the good news about, but you can't because...

Well, let's see, there's updating my website because it's now linked to three show pages on the Fringe site and needs to look at current as humanly possible.

There's the updating of all the bios on both sites, still not done...

Then there's dealing with the show cards - lovely but...ack, expensive...that now all have my fingerprints on them (all 2000 of 'em) because I spent the better part of a couple of hours parceling them off into bundles of 100 each to pass our to our cast and playwrights to start proselytizing for FastFringe.

And of course in between, four nights a week, are rehearsals for the other show (where I'm now on book for actors learning to put down their scripts)

One of which I'll have to miss because my friend Abigail with the radio show on KFAI just called to say she'd like to profile me - so one more chance to plug the shows there.

But there's that moment, like last night in rehearsal for Dandelion Snow, when you realize, "I think this could be a sleeper hit of the Fringe. If only people can find their way to it, I think they'll love it, and tell other people, and maybe, just maybe..." The actors so deserve it for all their hard work.

So it's more hard work for me, happily, because I know I'm plugging away for a good cause.

Friday, July 16, 2004

TWO PERFORMANCES ONLY - the opening Friday and Saturday, August 6th and 7th, of the Festival

And one of the performances is the very first performance block - 5:30pm on a Friday.

Tough for any performers, doubly tough for out of townerpemuch chance to garner any word of mouth. Scheduling conflicts have made it impossible for them to stay for the whole run of the festival, unfortunately, but they're still very excited about bringing their play to share with us.

No doubt they'll all be working the festival community to get the word out. And I'm putting in a plug for them as well.

What's it about, you say? I'm glad you asked...

Here are the words of Woody Hood, head honcho for Terra Icognita:

"I've been thinking about how to talk about 'Dix' for a long time. The play is rather thickly poetic and fragmented, so talking about it with words is a bit strange. It doesn't lend itself easily to publicity and promotion unfortunately...

The setting for the piece is the Dorothea Dix Hospital, founded in 1848 to change the public's perception of mental illnesses. Here's the basic info on her: Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) - American philanthropist, reformer, and educator who was a pioneer in the movement for specialized treatment of the mentally ill.

The play opens with a long-time nurse introducing a new hire to the 'Dix Hilton.' We quickly leave the confines of the real and enter multiple worlds as we discover each new patient. We enter a place created by a woman who only perceives the universe via color. One understands and communicates only by rhythmic sound. A third patient transmogrifies into multiple people/times/places.

As the piece progresses, the young nurse learns to pull her interior landscapes that she's kept secretly squirreled away to the outside. In the end, all of the women join in a ritual of freedom, safe away from the confines of 'real' or 'normal.'

Words I would use to describe the play: funny, surreal, sweet, bizarre, warm, earthy, disconnected, connected, imaginative. The playwright is [also] a published poet...She just had a premiere of her first opera at a festival last fall in Alsace, France (a bizarre and wonderful thing with music created randomly by mechanized robots...

We've already had a directed reading of [Dix]. The audience was remarkably positive and they seemed to be able to track the piece well. I'm dying to know how audiences will respond to the full beast...

Our company (Terra Incognita) is happy to find a festival in the U.S. that is still interested in this sort of work. We're tired of paying for the airfare to travel our work to Europe where it can be viewed in its own terms and not in commercial ones."

I love a play that needs the Fringe in order to exist. The description fascinates me. There are a couple of Minnesota-based women's theater companies, also in the Fringe this year, who probably ought to give it a look, and a longer local production, if it's as good as I think it's going to be.

Catch it while you can. Two performances only, in the opening weekend, and then they're gone.

(normally this might be a candidate for "Save This Show From Its Title," but if a mispelling more common to e-mails is going to get you to give this show a second look, then I'm OK with that)

Based on the title, I wasn't even going to bother. As Woody Allen said, "Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love," but really, it's a private thing. I can stay home and do it for free.

However, this is apparently what it's really about - "...the desires, failed dreams, and neurosis of three exceptional men: Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, and Federico Garcia Lorca, as they thumb thier noses at art and cinema, intellect and audience, religion, sexuality, and life in general. Living in 1920's Spain, these men grow from pranksters posing as artists, gain acceptance into surrealist clubs, become ostracized for their individuality, and then carve their own niche in the world of art"

As anyone who heard me holding forth last year about "Oil On Canvas" at the Fringe will tell you, I'm not fond of art about artists. It can be good but is often self-pitying and self-indulgent. Sort of like...

masturbation....

Hmmm...

According to a friend of mine with a background in art history, Dali really did like to masturbate a lot (so they were apparently thumbing more than just their noses). But really, as a title? It's either pandering to make the audience do a doubletake, or it's more accurate about the content than I want to contemplate right now. (And I must admit, in many ways, it is very much a Fringe title. In some ways, too much.)

Even I, who don't like art about artists, look at a roster of Dali, Bunuel and Lorca and think, "Damn, that might be an interesting play."

We may be getting a glimpse at some of them now - young Fringe Bingers who decided to put on Fringe shows of their own this year and join the happy, messy throng...

Two groups of young women, both dealing with what goes on in the ladies' room (one about scribblings on the walls, the other about something past generations used to refer to as Aunt Flo coming to visit once a month) - and another co-ed group of young improv artists (so there's probably some bathroom humor on hand there as well). They are...

A rockin' story of a school trapped in a power struggle. Created by eight teenage girls. This isn't a teen movie, it's the crap in school you try to forget. (That's the young ladies' description, since they can get away with talking like that in a way I no longer can.)

This is part of YPC's new project, The PG-13 Initiative ("the voice of the teen as it speaks to the teen spirit"), where they gather a group of young artists and create a show about a topic of interest to them. "Goddess Menses" was the first project, mounted last year, which was so popular they were asked several times to bring it back. So, it's coming to the Fringe. In their words, "A wild and funny show about every woman's favorite time of the month. Using sketch comedy, musical parody, and personal stories we shed light on the taboo subject of menstruation."

Deep thoughts and sketch comedy. An original, satirical look at modern times, through the eyes of the improv troupe, Rebels Without Applause.

The coaches of the BNI Teen Improv Troupe, Jen Scott and Ahna Brandvik weigh in with more...

"Every Sunday about 15 kids, age 13-18, from across the metro area get together to study long form improv at the Brave New Workshop. Since its creation, the Teen Improv Troupe has produced a Fringe show (2002), attended and performed at the Chicago Improv Festival (2003), performed at the weekly 'adult' improv carnival 'Improv A Go Go,' and continue to practice and perform. It's hard not to sound like a geeky soccer mom when raving about them: they're an amazing mix of different social classes, backgrounds, interests and are all just super smart and very very funny. Right now [as a work in progress], the theme seems to be focused on the media and its perceived differences of people (and hopefully some ninjas)."

Gotta love those ninjas. And you really gotta love a new generation making us...uh, slightly older...theatre artists feel a little less like theater is a dead art form going out of style. Live performance still has its drawing power, for humans of any stripe. And so I'll probably be dropping by to get a hit of youthful energy and enthusiasm. I recommend others join me.

This is from the people who brought us that wildly popular inner-city road trip "The Car" several Fringes back (a sell-out crowd, at only nine seats, all of them in the back seat of three moving cars, while the performance took place in the front seat)

This time, they've parked and moved into the space at Intermedia Arts, creating another of their signature site-specific (in this case, theatre-specific) theatergoing experiences - pushing the envelope of what a stage and an audience can be. Everything I've seen from Skewed Visions is compelling and highly entertaining.

But I'll let company member Charles Campbell tell you directly in his own words about the project (back when it was still more of a work in progress)...

"The impetus for creating the piece was the ongoing stampeding of civil rights in the name of security that still seems to be flying under the radar...I wanted to create a piece that was an artistic response to these events without making something didactic, brutal or hard to watch. I have always been interested in work that flirts with both the beauties of abstraction and the muscles of issue-oriented material...What came out was a piece that explored fear and suspicion, hiding and escape, control and chaos, by using plumbing as a metaphor for both a body and a system. The show is, I hope, very evocative and suggestive of what it is to live in the culture of fear that has arisen after that day in September.

The piece is a shadowy, whispering, creeping thing...It is a heavily aural experience, slightly unusual in theater I think...I tend to work with collaged texts and sounds, hoping to alter things enough to make them speak my meanings while retaining their original associations. The text for Pipes was assembled from many sources including sections from a 1962 short story by Julio Cortazar called "The Loss and Recovery of the Hair" (think earthy Borges), my medical records, Orwell's "1984" (naturally), "Austerlitz" by W.G. Sebald, and Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock," plus writings straight from my fingers. I am working on incorporating a small section from Kafka's "The Trial." There is a sound/music element that I have assembled from Shostakovich, Phillip Glass, Arvo Part, The Clash, Tom Waits, Leadbelly, Fats Waller, Bach and Thomas Tallis and other recorded effects...There are many small light sources, amplified sounds, an eight-foot table with matching chair, and oddities, humor, and excitement. Despite this laundry list of materials, it is quite of a piece, aesthetically, and makes a sort of effective visceral sense (I am told)"

[Pipes began its life in 2003 as a commission for the Naked Stages program at Intermedia Arts, a program to develop new performance art and artists funded by the Jerome Foundation.]

I'm more than intrigued, based on both this and their track record (having never let me down before), so I'll be there.

Yes, the title's a mouthful, but worth wrapping your head around. Don't let the multisyllabic words scare you off. Any show proudly featuring the devil ducky can't be taking itself too seriously. It's as human and accessible a show as you're likely to find at this year's Fringe.

Claire may be new to the Fringe, but she's no stranger to either stage (Red Eye, Jeune Lune, Three Legged Race, Patrick's Cabaret, and Vulva Riot to name a few) or screen (her films have been part of Walker Art Center's "Women with Vision" series three times, plus Portland Oregon's Film Center, and the Nashville Independent Film Festival).

Now she returns to the stage, combining her two loves into a multi-media one person show that is the best of both worlds. One adds to and builds on, rather than distracts from, the other, making for a fuller experience that one or the other alone couldn't offer.

She's a clever wordsmith and sly performer who intrigues you without ever giving the impression she's trying too hard. It's all in the performance, not drawing attention to her considerable bag of tricks, even as she executes one after another.

I've seen an excerpt of this and it's great fun. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the thing in its entirety.

He has a poet's way of bending language to his will that I truly envy.

Words seem to work harder and reveal more under his ministrations.

Crochety yet charming doesn't cover it.

Befuddled yet bemused isn't right.

Somewhere between wise and wise-ass.

Opinionated, even belligerent, and yet benevolent, compassionate in his own way even to those with whom he's violently opposed.

Scathingly funny. Emitting a perpetual stream of images and sound bites that are food for thought of the most satisfying and human variety. I see myself clearly in his rants, for better and for worse, and I imagine many others do, too.

He's got two shows each weekend of the Fringe, plus a Thursday night performance. Work him into your plans for a full day of theatre. You'll be glad you did.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Brush Up Your Shakespeare

One of the many things I love about Fringe: even the Bard is considered Fringe, or at least Fringe material...

Notable past successes that spring to my mind include Calibanco Theatre's take on "Two Noble Kinsmen" (which got them their start both in and out of the Fringe, and now they're back with "Feeling Faust") and "Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes" from the wonderful local playwright Todd Hughes (who, among others, I wax rhapsodic about in Minnesota Fringe Festival 2004: A Love Story) and of course last year's hilariously exhausting and yet somehow also reverent treatment of "One Man Hamlet."

This year, we've got a hat trick of Shakespearean fun:

AkespeareshayStarting Gate Productions
Hey City Upstairs
First, they superimpose a piglet head on Shakespeare's torso, then there's "incest, battles, suicide, patricide, 7 languages, iambic pentameter and how we receive The Bard" *and* it's still "Family-Friendly." Gotta love 'em. Well, maybe you don't, but I do. They already got the kinks worked out as part of their summer season and now they're bringing it to the Fringe. Can't wait.

MacBlankFifty Foot Penguin (love the logo, love the name)
Hey City Upstairs (I sense a trend)
"It's 2004, and MacBeth is still quite peeved about that beheading. His vengeful plan to kill the last living MacDuff (an anxious American named Charlie) goes terribly awry." Again, you don't have to love it, but I do.

The Tamer TamedLakeshore Players & EmPea Productions
Bryant Lake Bowl (Fringe home of One Man Hamlet)
Kate is dead. Petruchio, the famed wife tamer, has remarried a tame, obedient woman, or so he thought. The battle of wills is fought anew in this feminist comedy. I'm a sucker for these things. This, too, I recommend. It sounds like fun.

For the Fringe, there's no Shakespeare like revisionist Shakespeare. Let's hear it for the groundlings.

Don't know whether it's because we're at war or there's a presidential election going on this year (or maybe it's more nervous handwringing because of Janet Jackson's boob) but there are about twice as many violence warnings in this year's Fringe compared to last year. Still, just like last year, not all of them seem frighteningly hardcore. Just a warning for the faint of heart. Which my heart appreciates...

Assassins - well, the title's a good clue. Having seen a production of this at the History Theatre many moons ago, I can say that it's probably the most enjoyable meditation on presidential assassins you're likely to see (there's quite a bit of humor, and no presidents were harmed in the making of this musical). An amusing choice for an election year. And not all of us can get to Broadway to see the Sondheim showcase there. I'll be going again, and probably bringing Mom.

Axis Mundi - The theatre company's name - Aggravated Assault - certainly isn't being coy either. There's also a bit of violence just in the publicity photograph, so this one's probably on the high end of the violence scale, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just a coupla' white guys sitting around beating the crap out of each other. As Marge said in The Talented Mr. Ripley, "Why is it when boys play, they always play at killing each other?" Still, all that said, the little devil on my shoulder is whispering in my ear saying this might be guilty pleasure territory.

Death Penalty Puppetry - OK, it's about the death penalty. But, c'mon, it's puppets. And since I quite literally laughed out loud the first time I saw their puppet mug shot, you'll probably be all right here. One of the many reasons it's in my top ten this year.

Donuts & Bow-Ties - there's a reference to "a sweet tale of terrorism and breakfast" and a gun in the publicity photo - so while there's a potential for nastiness (not to mention nudity and adult language), they seem good natured about it.

Fast Fringe #1: The Agony and Fast Fringe #2: The Ecstasy - Since I'm one of the producing Spanish ladies, I can vouch for these two. First, they're short plays, so they kind of have to get right to it and make their point. Second, what's a smattering of dark comedy without a little talk of death and brandishing of firearms. I can reassure you that only one gun is actually fired, offstage, and, if you're curious, yes, he hits his mark. Other than that, I reveal nothing. Unless you want to browse through some excerpts. There's a lot of comedy, not all of it violent by any means, so there's balance. And if you don't like a playlet in the showcase, hey, it's over in ten minutes and on to the next. We're hoping there's a little something for everyone.

Jaws: The Musical! - whether there's a Land Shark involved or not, we can be pretty sure that this was no boating accident. The premise - people making a musical version of the film without actually having seen the film - tickles me. So I'm probably going, chum in the water or not.

Lokasenna - Wine! Women! And nanny goats! How bad could it be? I'm a sucker for ancient myths, and there seems to be a lot of humor, much of it bawdy, here, so again, I think we're safe.

Look Ma No Pants: The Last One - It's the Scrimshaw Brothers, people. They're parodying the shower scene from Psycho in their publicity photo. There was a fair amount of violence in last year's show and, rather than being traumatized by it, I was laughing my butt off. Don't let the violence scare you here. Go!

Prodigal - a celebrity actress confronting her estranged family in the suburbs at a birthday party - a recipe for violence if ever I heard one. This is from the same folks who brought you "A Regular Night At The Strip Club" last year, so they're no strangers to violence warnings.

Punk Rock Awesome - another play with music and assassins in it. These guys are a hoot. No qualms here, I trust them not to hurt me, only make me laugh - a lot. I highly recommend them. See you there.

RomAntic aGE - well, here's where my hormones trip me up. Of course, I could just say that, hey, they're from out of state, let's be polite and neighborly and go see their show. Or I could say that I'm fond of Blake's poetry and will brave a violence warning and the fact that the capitalized letters in the title spell "R-A-G-E." But, honestly, the thing that tips me over the edge into the "I'm probably going to go see them" category - the guys are cute. I'm sure heterosexuals are often subject to similar weaknesses. Just one more thing we have in common.

Searchingly Patient - between the warning for gunshots, the picture of a woman strangling a doctor with a stethescope, and the description of a battle of wills between a hypochondriac and her doctor, I'm a little worried - (*gulp*)

Tape - Ah, high school reunions - if you managed to survive high school, there's plenty of residual anger to fuel the violence later for old time's sake.

The Devils - with a company called Medea's Children and a story of demonic possession in a nunnery, yeah, I'm expecting violence.

The Great Masturbators - Violent masturbation?! Oh, this is actually a show about Dali, Lorca and Bunuel - I can see where the violence comes from. But here's another candidate for "Save this show from its title!" Once I get past the title, I'm actually interested in the subject matter. Geez.

The Judas Cradle - when you're fighting for the future of the human race, things can get ugly. And that woman in the picture is looking at those little clay spacepeople figures in her hands a little too gleefully for my taste. However, my taste being mentioned, I like me some sci fi, and this one's going in my Top Ten, for reasons I'll get to shortly.

The Writings on the Bathroom Stall - after just seeing Gus Van Sant's "Elephant," I'm a little nervous about violence and high schools again, but since this is being written, produced, performed, you name it by a group of eager high school girls turned Fringe junkies, I'll just hope it's a major catfight.

So as with life, sometimes in art violence also has its uses. We have been warned. Still, don't let it scare you off. After all, keep saying to yourself, "It's just a play, it's just a play."

About Me

Playwright, arts writer for Twin Cities Daily Planet and MNArtists.org, blogger mostly about the Minnesota Fringe Festival - www.matthewaeverett.com is my writing website and general web home - still, at the moment, just like the blog title of old says, single